It is well known that many individuals have difficulty swallowing pills, particularly people over age 50 and children. It is estimated that 10% of young adults have a problem swallowing pills, and problems often increase with age due to medical conditions such as a stroke or inadequate saliva.
There are differing beliefs as to why healthy individuals have trouble in swallowing pills. Some attribute the difficulty to the large size of many capsules or dense make-up of most tablets. Applicant believes the swallowing of pills is impeded by the sensitivity of the roof of an individual's mouth and the different feel associated with pills as opposed to food.
Suppliers of oral medications have made numerous attempts to overcome the difficulties of pill swallowing. Spray and liquid medications are sometimes an alternative, but many drugs are not soluble in water, or their taste is very unpleasant. Most individuals also consider rectal administration of medication to be unpleasant. Under development is reported to be pills that dissolve in an individual's mouth, including appealing flavoring.
Other devices have also been proposed to facilitate the swallowing of pills. For example, pill crushers are available for cutting and smashing tablets, but pharmacists warn that some pills should not be crushed. Some pills have a coating to cover an unpleasant taste, and other pills, if crushed, may irritate the lining of an individual's mouth. Importantly, in some instances crushing pills eliminates their sustained-release action, or their ability to be released only at certain sites in the body such as the intestine.
Other methods reported to make medicine go down more easily include: drinking a glass of water first to make the tongue more slippery; putting the tablet as far back on the tongue as possible to speed its journey; standing up while taking the pill to work with gravity; eating ice cream or something equally cold first; and, eating the pill in combination with applesauce or the like. These methods are helpful to some, but ineffective or not feasible for use by others.
As such, new devices and methods with widespread applicability are needed for those continuing to experience difficulty in the swallowing of pills.